Dark Persuasive Tactics: Lessons From Media, Religion, and Politics

The mainstream media, organized religion, and political parties implement unethical practices to brainwash their audience to retain authority and influence over them while maximizing their profits.

In this chapter, let’s look at some classic, tell-tale dark persuasive tactics leveraged by these adoptive entities.

1. Claim Supremacy

Abrahamic Religions are notorious for this one. The first step in indoctrinating someone into any of the three desert ideologies is to claim supremacy.

Each of the three religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — claims that they are the best with nothing more than self-authored literature that states the same. This embeds a sense of superiority within the followers and they naturally shut out any criticism.

You can see it in practice with religious folks in real life. Religious people are hardwired to ignore any logical fallacies you point to in their faith of choice. They are married to their beliefs to such a degree that even absolute lies appear as truths.

For instance, the promise of an eternal heaven is completely absurd considering the cycle of creation and destruction can’t be stopped. How can anyone experience inexplicable pleasure forever if things aren’t being created or destroyed?

However, followers of each organized religion will conveniently look past this reasoning and will continue to believe the delusional promise of paradise because it’s written in a book they aren’t allowed to question.

It’s not the claim of supremacy per se, it is making the followers immune to logic and reasoning by engineering arrogance into their psyche.

2. Blame Others (Question Credibility)

Political parties do this the most. 

Eurocentric politics, which has Christian underpinnings, is divisive by nature. It started with Catholics vs Protestants and now it’s left-wing vs right-wing, whatever that means. 

Apart from the underlying sense of self-proclaimed superiority and an unwavering belief that it will lead to a utopic society political parties approach campaigns through mud-slinging.

“Whatever bad happens is the other side’s fault and that can be easily fixed if our ideology is applied.” That’s the mantra of most if not all, political parties or ideologies.

It is interesting to note that the only difference between religion and political ideology is that the former promises a spiritual utopia and the latter offers an egalitarian utopia, provided the doctrine is adopted strictly and sincerely. 

Of course, as paradise is a delusion, both take human civilization toward anarchy and chaos, albeit at different rates.

3. Promise Exclusivity

News channels promise their viewers nothing less than unfiltered truths from a neutral perspective. Compare the coverage of a common incident from multiple outlets and you will realize it’s all a sham.

The central idea here is to promise something so unique and special that it can’t be replicated by anyone. Moreover, none of the competitors can’t even come close to its quality.

They sell it effectively by insinuating that the viewers “deserve” a higher quality of journalling, inflating the ego of the audience through flattery. As most people are mediocre and looking desperately for something that will elevate their social status easily, they jump on the opportunity.

In a group of news buffs, you will be instantly judged based on which outlets you watch and trust.

Many elements in the marketing and product positioning of these news channels have been extracted from religion and political ideologies due to their proven efficacy.

4. Give a Taste

People go to others when they need things. It goes beyond products and services. It also includes validation, permission, and support. Compliance experts give a quick taste of what you need to rope you in for the long term.

Any personal problem you are experiencing in your life, apparently, every religion has the answer. They all claim to solve your financial, ethical, moral, social, and existential problems thoroughly.

Any problems you see in the current structure of society, a political ideology that’s not currently in power has the key to solving it.

Similarly, for any famous personality you dislike, there will be a tabloid that churns out hate pieces, smearing their name, to entertain you.

Each of these ‘tastes’ is enough to rope you in. It doesn’t necessarily mean you will take out your wallet and make a purchase then and there. It means you start to see them through rose-colored glasses. It means you perceive them favorably.

The conversion, whether it is converting to a new religion, switching sides in a political affair, or finding a new media outlet you like, happens later. 

The funny thing is, even after realizing that you have been tricked into making a decision that was nothing like it was advertised, it’d be too late and you would rather prefer to stick to it anyway because now it defines you. It has become a part of you. Brilliant!

5. Vacuum Truths and Word Salads

As mentioned in the previous chapter (linked below), manipulative efforts emerge from lies while leveraging unrelated true statements to create the illusion of reality.

Consider media outlets running a smear campaign on an individual. It’s not that they won’t present any facts. It’s that they will prop up the facts with their lies. When you question their lies, they will claim that the truth eludes you.

Same with religion and political ideologies.

The relevant spokespersons toss-up fancy word salads to create an illusion of intelligence and distract the listeners from the stark reality. They confuse critics by focusing on the definitions of things and the nuances of the literature without ever addressing the main point.

Wrapping Up: Dark Tactics Demand a Lot

If you don’t have the money or hard power, I recommend staying away from the aforementioned unethical persuasive practices.

Many businesses have employed it only to go bankrupt in the next quarters. Entrepreneurs do this and get labeled as scammers or grifters. 

As if that’s not enough, people will come after you and the public will look at you through vengeful eyes.

The juice is not worth the squeeze.

—

Next Chapter: 4 Hacks to Persuade Easily

Previous Chapter: Difference Between Persuasion and Manipulation

Index (with Prologue): The Fundamentals of Persuasive Writing

Dark/unethical persuasive practices | Imagined by DALL E3